3 RECENT ADDITIONS
DETERMINERSQUANTIFIERS: SOME, MORE
MENTAL PREDICATES: SEE, HEAR
MOVEMENT EXISTENCE, LIFE: MOVE, THERE IS, LIVE
SPACE: FAR, NEAR, SIDE, INSIDE, HERE
TIME: A LONG TIME, A SHORT TIME, NOW
INTERCLAUSAL LINKERS: IF ... WOULD, MAYBE,
OTHERS: WORD Since Goddard and W’s 1994 study covered some 17 languages, the primitives in the ESTABLISHED
group are quite well attested. Although the RECENT ADDITIONS appear to be attested in a number of languages, they have not yet been subjected to the same rigorous scrutiny and must be regarded as less
well established. The stability of a group of primitives is an important consideration in our interpretation of the
evidence. If I am missing a certain primitive in HCE, one could conclude either that HCE is an impoverished language or that NSM is an impoverished theory. NSM, after all, is still a hypothesis under
construction. A missing RECENT ADDITIONS primitive is likely to reflect problems with the NSM specification. On
the other hand, a missing ESTABLISHED primitive, would be the strongest possible evidence against our hypothesis. So strong, in fact, that we would need to seriously consider what is generally regarded as
linguistic heresy, that is, the possibility that HCE is indeed an impoverished and inferior language, at least in certain respects. Therefore, this ESTABLISHED group will be the subject of our study.
1.5 Falsification of hypothesis
If HCE truly lacked a primitive lexeme that was attested in a wide variety of languages, this would indeed mean that speakers of other languages have access to certain meanings that are inaccessible to
HCE speakers. Why this is so needs further elaboration. The NSM set is proposed as a set which is not only primitive and universal, but also complete. The
implication is that the NSM set is sufficient to define or if you prefer, generate the entire lexicon and syntax of any natural language. If a language X is missing a non-primitive lexeme L that occurs in
language Y, this of course, does not mean that the language X has no access to the meaning expressed by L. As a non-primitive lexeme, L can then be decomposed into primitives. This configuration of primitives
can then be translated from language Y into language X by simple substitution. If, however, language X is missing a primitive P, and P is truly primitive, then not only is language X utterly without access to
the meaning expressed by P, it also is without access to any concept which contains P. Speakers can neither express P nor use it in any way. I want to emphasize that point. There is simply no way to
compensate for a missing primitive in a language.
1.6 Validity of results
NSM is still an imperfect specification. Since the NSM specification forms the basis for this study, we need need to consider how mistakes in NSM could affect our conclusions. Let us consider all of the
possibilities: If the NSM specification is missing primitives or syntactic combinations, and ...
a if this study found that certain primitives or syntactic combinations in NSM were missing in HCE, then further additions to NSM would be irrelevant to the study’s conclusion i.e., HCE is
impoverished.
4 b if this study found that all primitives and combinations of primitives present in NSM were also
present in HCE, then further additions to NSM would not necessarily mean that our conclusion i.e., HCE is equivalent is wrong. It would mean that our proof of equivalence is incomplete.
Still, this study would be a significant advance over previous efforts, proving equivalence for a larger segment of a language.
If the NSM specification contains lexemes or syntactic configurations which are not universal, and... a if this study found that certain primitives or syntactic combinations were missing in HCE, then
their absence from the NSM specification does indeed affect the validity of our conclusion i.e., HCE is impoverished.
b if this study found all primitives or syntactic combinations in NSM present in HCE, then the removal of any members from the NSM specification is irrelevant to our conclusion i.e., HCE is
equivalent. In any case, if equivalence is proved for individual primitives and syntactic combinations, then
equivalence is also proved for all expressions derivable from them. This finding would not be invalidated by future changes in the NSM specification.
5
Chapter 2 An overview of Natural Semantic Metalanguage
